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Know Your Numbers, Know Your Power: Armine Alajian on Building a Business You Can Actually Afford to Love · Serious Lady Business

• LESLIE YOUNGBLOOD (00:03) Hey there, I'm Leslie Youngblood and this is Serious Lady Business, the podcast where we get real about what it takes to build a business as a woman today. From late night Google searches and client curveballs to the wins that make it all worth it, I'm talking about the stuff no one puts in the highlight reel. Each week, I'm bringing you honest conversations, lessons learned and stories from women who are out here doing the work. Messy, meaningful and unapologetically bold. Whether you're just dreaming about starting a business or deep in the grind, this podcast is your space to feel seen, supported, and fired up. Because let's be honest, this journey is hard, hilarious, and absolutely worth it. So let's dive in. Leslie Youngblood (00:50) Welcome to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. Today, I can't wait for you to meet Armin Elagian. Armin is a self-described magician, CPA, fractional CFO, and tax and business management specialist. Welcome, Armin. Armine Alajian (01:10) Thank you, Leslie. Leslie Youngblood (01:11) I always say, like, I'm very excited, but I'm always extra excited to talk about things that I find are just extremely important that we generally, especially as women, don't talk about so much, and that's money. So we're talking know your numbers, know your power here. And I mean, with your deep background and experience, I would love to start at the beginning with you. What pulled you from traditional accounting into building your own firm? And what problem were you Armine Alajian (01:20) Mm-hmm. Money. Leslie Youngblood (01:37) to solve for founders. Armine Alajian (01:38) Well, the pool was not just a pool. It was a transition. It was over 20 years, right? Your transition you start with your first corporate job in public accounting Then you slowly go to others you meet things along the way and then you realize okay I like what I'm doing, but I want to serve more I think because once you become in a once you become excelled in a company. It's just ongoing day-to-day Leslie Youngblood (01:56) Mmm. Armine Alajian (02:03) Well, I like, I really like what I did and I wanted to do that for others as well. Leslie Youngblood (02:08) Yeah. How long were you in the corporate space until you transitioned to start your own thing? I mean. Armine Alajian (02:14) About over 15-20 years? 15 years? Leslie Youngblood (02:18) Okay. Yeah, I feel like that can be, I feel like for millennials potentially, right, that we started out. Armine Alajian (02:26) Ten years. Leslie Youngblood (02:27) We in we have to go corporate or we're going to do this. We're going to get jobs because I feel like entrepreneurship has become this thing with the rise of the Internet And I'm sure with the evolution of just culture and society. Right. And you see entrepreneurs now and business owners and people, in the startups and it's sexy. Right. But we didn't even know. And I would love to hear your experience growing up. I didn't grow up around business owners or founders even know that was a thing. Did you grow up around founders and business owners in your space? Armine Alajian (02:55) No, no I didn't and I'm glad you said that because when we grew up it was go to school, get your education, get your corporate job, stay there until you retire and then you you build your way up. That was it. Nobody was an entrepreneur. If you had a business it was maybe you're selling something, right? It was like okay somebody has a store, right? It was not, so I didn't have that mindset. Nobody around me had that mindset. It was just like head down, go, go, go. Leslie Youngblood (03:04) you Mm-hmm. Right, yeah, like a vacuum cleaner. Armine Alajian (03:22) And then you do that, you get there, and then mid 2000s come in. You're like, I don't think I could be partnering this big four firms. So what else? And then the startups are coming in and then everything else is changing. So then you start to explore other things. then naturally, like for me, I was when I was trans after I got my CPA, I was transitioning into again, back to corporate. Leslie Youngblood (03:22) great. Mm-hmm. Bright. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (03:46) or an opportunity came for a startup. I'm like, ⁓ that's new. You only hear of Google or something like that back then, but it's like, it's a startup. I have no idea what it's gonna be like. Let's do it. And I'm glad I did because that completely changed my outlook, my perception about life, about work, to look at things because everything was like, okay, this is not working. We're gonna take, change it. Or people moved around. It was so big. People were sitting on balls. Leslie Youngblood (03:46) Mm-hmm. Hmm... Right. Yeah Sure. Mm-hmm. Mmm. Armine Alajian (04:14) Maybe we could have did that out. Like we actually had, but anyways, it was an open work environment. So you're just like, what is this? And then you, I personally grew to love it. I don't think I could be in, I don't even know if that corporate world exists anymore, especially after COVID, after working from home. I don't even know what that's like. My daughter's gonna go into the workforce soon, so we'll see. Leslie Youngblood (04:15) Yeah, that's okay. They were like, but it was like... Mmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Right, sure. Well, yeah, I think it'll be interesting for our kids. mean, it's obviously every generation is completely different than the parents, but I think that's so special. Armine Alajian (04:46) This is completely, it's a shift. Like you have 10 year olds, 10 year old millionaires on YouTube knowing how to run a business, at least operate a business. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (04:51) I know. I know. I know. Right. to have that, which I think is fantastic. I love that spirit of I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to take my future, my wealth building ability to write into my own hands and go for it. And there's so many tools at our disposal now and for them even more so that help along the way. But, you know, like we were saying, for us, it was not the norm. And so tell me more about that moment where that startup opportunity came your way. how scared were you? Like how long did it take you to be like, no, I'm going to do this. tell us about that decision for you, I mean. Armine Alajian (05:30) Uh, well needed a job. I just got my CPA so I needed somewhere. I actually said yes to another corporate job and then the startup came along. Uh, so I was like, you know what, let's, let's, what's the worst that could happen? Let's just do it. Uh, so I did. Leslie Youngblood (05:38) Wow. Right? Armine Alajian (05:44) And in the beginning it was a little weird because it different. It was nothing that I'm used to. It was a completely different mind shift. But I got used to it. I would say after six months I liked it, but was just different. There was nobody to train you. There was nobody to teach you. You're just on your own and you're learning and you're building, right? It's a startup, so you're building. Nothing exists. Leslie Youngblood (05:48) Mmm. ⁓ Yeah. Right. Yeah. Armine Alajian (06:06) ⁓ After six months about or maybe four something was the holiday season so probably took little longer but I'm like I love this this this is perfect. I get it. Leslie Youngblood (06:15) Yeah, I can't. I'm so glad I found this. I'm so glad I did this, right? And I think that is so important too. Yeah. Armine Alajian (06:19) I'm so glad I did this. The best decision ever. Or else you go back and then it's gonna be the same. And you know what? Those companies don't even... Not that they don't exist. The model doesn't exist anymore. Leslie Youngblood (06:29) Right, right. once you see it, you can't unsee it or you can't go back. Right. And so to have that perspective and I think, you know, then to know that you can take risks or you can always. And when I was talking about things like I can always get a job or I can always go and find, mean, I know it's not easy. Like, I know it can be difficult to find a job, but if you're going to do something. Yes. Armine Alajian (06:33) of right, right. Yes. Exactly. Right, but if you have the education, you could do it. And this is also, it shifts you as a person out of your conditioning comfort zone. Like things have to be this way. besides in the workforce, as a person, you're like, okay, you're not, you're more flexible in life. Leslie Youngblood (06:56) Yes. Right. Yes, yes, definitely. And I think that's a perfect segue to something that you said is that clarity beats hustle. And what does that mean in your own journey? But then I also want to start to also pivot to that financial clarity for small businesses too, Armin. Armine Alajian (07:19) Right, knowing like your numbers, just knowing all your data. Do you have your books reconciled? Do you have all the numbers, all the data? Not just your bank statement, not just what cash you have in your pocket, but what does that really look like? Once you have it, once you see it, then you're like, okay, I'm clear. It's like, you know, washing dishes, like once you, or cleaning the house, once everything is, like, okay, now I know what to do or how to clean. So same thing with the numbers. If everything's all over the place, you don't know. Leslie Youngblood (07:31) Mmm. Yeah. Yes. So why do we, I was just gonna say, yes, like I see, know there's like my dishes or my kitchen is a mess. I don't wanna do it, but you know you have to do it. Like why do we allow that pile of dishes or that pile of financial mess accumulate? mean, what is that about? Armine Alajian (07:47) And you're afraid to look at it too. You're just like, oh, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. It's scary. I think it's scary. think it's something psychological or you just like, I don't want to look at it. If you don't look at it, it'll do its thing. It's doing, you kind of know what's happening, but you don't really know. And when you don't have a lot or, when things are not just flowing, it's scary to face what those numbers look like. So you're just like, okay. Leslie Youngblood (08:17) Yeah. Right. But then it feels so much better. It is like ripping that bandaid off because no matter where you are, one, always find it just there's a sense of relief when you're like, OK, this is what I'm dealing with. And once you know what you're dealing with, then you can make a plan. Right. And so I'm sure that's something that starting your own, you know, business and then like working with small businesses tell us to about that clarity to that comes once you actually tackle that problem. Armine Alajian (08:27) Huh. It's also a comfort zone, slowly. Like day one you're not gonna expect the business owner or someone to just look into it, understand it be comfortable. So slowly. And once something becomes a habit and it's reoccurring, you're like, okay, you kind of get into, you're used to it you're not as scared because you're doing it weekly or you're looking at it more frequently. So you're like, okay, you know, I see the transition or the path that it's going. Leslie Youngblood (08:59) Yeah. Yes. ⁓ Yes. Yes, I love that so much because that even just looking at that once isn't all you have to do. Like you said, it's a habit. It's a muscle. You don't get to be an Olympian by working out once, right? And you don't get to be. And so I just love that perspective because I think so many of us are maybe I'm just projecting myself where I think I'm going to be great at it or I don't get it yet. something's wrong with me. And that's not the case at all. It's an ongoing flex that you have to do. Armine Alajian (09:25) Mm-hmm. Exactly. that's not the case. Right. And it's again, like back to the condition. We're not used to it. Leslie Youngblood (09:42) to get back. Yeah, right. Yes, that's true. Armine Alajian (09:47) No one just wakes up and knows how to run a business. Maybe you have certain skills, but there's so many hats you have to wear. And then like, how does all that transition into the numbers? What do I do then? What does this little mean? Leslie Youngblood (09:53) Yes, definitely. Right, yes. Right, right, yes. mean, tell us about that. you know, I think a lot of small business owners think they have a revenue problem when it's actually maybe a pricing or a scope problem. How do you diagnose that? Tell us about that process. Armine Alajian (10:12) Well, first you want to have your projection, right? Like, OK, I'm starting a business. What does this look like? You don't even need anything sophisticated. Just like let's run the numbers down. Right. You like what does this all look like for a year, for six months, for 18 months, whatever. OK. And then you start to play with the numbers. What if I charge X amount and not this? What would that look like? And then once you have something, it's always going to change. It's never perfect. Once you have something, then you go. Leslie Youngblood (10:28) Thank you. Armine Alajian (10:42) Start working start making you know the money start doing working in your business, and then you reflect okay? This is my projection. This is what happened in month one. What is the problem? Is it too much is it not enough? But then it's ongoing you have to visit this every month and then tweak as you go and then you'll know it's no it's no wrong or right answer It's different for every single business Leslie Youngblood (10:53) Mm. Mm-hmm, but I like what you just said there. You have to do that every month in like time Okay, because I know Armine Alajian (11:09) You have to do that every month, at least every month. Leslie Youngblood (11:13) business owners that don't even do it every couple of months, right? Or they just, you know, and I, because you're busy or you're in that high time of business coming in, or you're trying to get new business, or things are humming and you don't sit down to look at the numbers like that. And so you're saying at the very least, sit down once a month, take a look at everything to ensure things are where you need them to be. Armine Alajian (11:28) Right. Right. And I don't think a lot of, at least what I see a lot of new businesses or smaller ones, unless that projection is required. Like if I'm raising money, if I have to go to investors, I have to show you a projection. This is what I'm going to do with your money. But when that's not required, a lot of people don't do that and they just operate or they love to listen to marketing sales like, we're going to get you this much. It's only like top line. Leslie Youngblood (11:48) Okay. Armine Alajian (12:01) This is the sales, but what about all the expenses? You're bringing in 100K a month, but you're spending 200 on advertising. How does that, I think it's just, they look at the advertising, like the sales, just that portion, sometimes deeply, but not the business overall. Leslie Youngblood (12:01) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I always think about... Yeah. Yeah, I think about that so much. I'm sure you've seen these types of coaches or offers online too, is I can show you how to make a six figure business or by writing emails or by making faceless YouTube ads. And then I think, okay, but what are you spending? what are your expenditures to do that? what does it take to get there? And then also what I think. Armine Alajian (12:32) He he he. Leslie Youngblood (12:38) people never talk about, and I would love to have you tell us too, is about the taxes that you have to put aside. So you're doing all this and these guys and these fancy cars, they hopefully should be putting aside money for taxes or having a very savvy tax person to get those expenses down so they're not taxed in that higher like area. So yes, that's my piece. Tell us about your person. Armine Alajian (12:59) ⁓ yeah, everybody's a professor and an educator on Instagram and on social media. Unfortunately, everybody's yelling at you, trying to sell you something. next, why, why, if that was the case, everybody would have been doing it and everybody would have been rich the way they're all promising. I'm a Leslie Youngblood (13:03) Okay. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (13:18) No comment there. you know, it's just, it's interesting. And then then you hear all these stories. There was some tax evasion case. There was like a Ponzi scheme, whatever. So when you have like, it's the month to month, right? You have your projection. Leslie Youngblood (13:26) We love you. Armine Alajian (13:32) You work, the business works, then you have your results. Based on those results, you know how much taxes you have to pay. Most of the time, new companies, have losses. So let's say a year or two, you have tax losses, not necessarily cash losses, just tax losses. And then once you got to monitor that also. So quarterly, I like to do this quarterly. This is what it looks like. It already happened. this is what the tax, how can we, what can we do? How can we project? Leslie Youngblood (13:34) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mmm. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (14:00) or what's the strategy we could implement and then to know what it would look like for the rest of the year and you're not surprised when April comes around you're like oh my god I'm paying all this at least if you pay or you don't pay you know it's not a surprise or pay quarterly estimates everybody prefers it differently some people like to pay a year and some people want you don't even have to pay or maybe it's just that like thin line between oh I was gonna buy some equipment Leslie Youngblood (14:03) Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm. Mm. Right. Armine Alajian (14:26) Let me buy December 31st instead of January 1st, because that could make a difference. Leslie Youngblood (14:31) Right, yeah, for sure. that's why I always say anybody... No. Right. Armine Alajian (14:32) And it's not only just spending money and buying things, there's other things, but at least you know, just have that awareness. Leslie Youngblood (14:40) Right. Yes, exactly. That's why I always say to anybody who's starting business, get a tax person or get an accountant, get somebody that's going to help you with those numbers because yeah, because you don't want to be getting that big tax bill at tax time and you haven't planned for that. Could there be a worse feeling? I like there would be no worse feeling. my God, how much money? Because I wasn't aware that I needed to be doing this. And so just to prepare yourself, you know, whether that's part of that. Armine Alajian (14:47) It's a flow, it's all little flows together. Yeah. Right. I didn't take this much and every type of entity you have has a completely different text structure. Leslie Youngblood (15:10) Yeah. Sure, yeah, no doubt. can't even, let's talk about cashflow for a minute here. Okay, what are the two to three leading indicators you watch to spot trouble, right? Or opportunity like 60 to 90 days ahead. Armine Alajian (15:18) Okay. Just again comes down to tracking there's Accounting tracking where you have your profit and loss you have your balance sheet, you know your books look like this is what your business is doing But then what about cash? Yes, I have all these receivables. Am I getting them paid on time? Do I actually have the cash? So I like to have a separate cash flow Leslie Youngblood (15:41) and Armine Alajian (15:50) I don't want to call it a cash flow statement. That's an official statement part of the whole financials. But separate cash, just to purely track your cash. Cash in, cash out, the projection. This is how much it cost us to operate. We need minimum of $50,000 a month, for example. But ABC company hasn't paid us. Oh no, what do we do? Do we need to get a loan? Leslie Youngblood (15:54) Yeah. Run. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Armine Alajian (16:11) Do does that that means where we can pay our vendors? So if I like that we on weekly basis at least at least again monthly, but if you're tight, if cash is tight, you want to track that month more frequently. Leslie Youngblood (16:14) Mm-hmm. Mmm. Yes, that is so on point I just saw a LinkedIn post that was talking about somebody that pivoted from journalism to PR communications because in journalism they can take a, or you might not get paid for your story. They can only pay 50 % for something and then you're not paid on time. And so it was more, they could control more of their payment process and their inflow of cash by pivoting to more of like a service structure. And like, man, if I had a nickel for every, Armine Alajian (16:38) Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (16:52) every small business owner that I knew or heard or talked to that wasn't paid on time. And this is not just from local businesses. It's like in the corporations. Armine Alajian (16:58) Yep. It's big corporations. It's pretty sad because I see this trend with the production companies. They're working with the big companies and they don't pay them on time, but you have to hire the staff. have to hire the crew. You have to do all of that. And then a lot of what their banks or other institutions that lend you the money with high interest and you have to take it because you don't have the cash until you get paid from the big corporation. Leslie Youngblood (17:22) Mm-hmm. Yeah, mm-hmm, yeah. I know specifically of a production agency that that happened to that was waiting for $50,000 from a big name, know, Fortune 500 company. fortunately they had the cash reserves to cover the costs of their payments to their people, but they were livid. And that blows my mind that somebody like ex company wouldn't pay you on time or you would have to hound them for money. Yeah. Armine Alajian (17:31) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It happens a lot, unfortunately. Leslie Youngblood (17:51) Mm-hmm. And so I think that having what you know, and I think a lot of times it didn't even occur to me. I was like, oh, they had cash reserves. That was very smart. But to have that cash reserve for your business to get you through those tough times where you're chasing somebody for money or somebody's not paying you on time when they should is so important. And again, for anybody listening, it's not just about the revenue in having that come in, but how are you setting yourself up for that true financial success? Armine Alajian (18:17) Right. Leslie Youngblood (18:21) every day, day in and day out for your business to cover those instances that unfortunately happen to everybody. Armine Alajian (18:24) Right. And you know, every business is different. Everybody's reserves or needs are different. So it could again be a habit where I'm putting X amount of money aside to a savings account or a different account. I'm not touching it. Leslie Youngblood (18:39) Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (18:40) because I know if I don't get paid, I know that money's there. It becomes like a routine expense. And if you don't need it, great, you can reinvest it, do something else with it. But we have to have different buckets and different things, how we split the money that comes. And when the money comes in and if you have a formula and a setup, like, okay, this is going here, this, and you don't even look at it. Leslie Youngblood (18:45) Yeah, sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. Armine Alajian (19:00) because you know it's like your savings. This is for my taxes. It's not in my account. I don't see it. It's there. I'll use it later. This is for my savings. This is for my reserve. Leslie Youngblood (19:09) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely everybody listening. Make sure you get yourself your bucket sit down and take a look at your bucket ⁓ Armine Alajian (19:15) Cash is king. Yes, Leslie Youngblood (19:17) It really is. mean, you never know Armine Alajian (19:17) buckets. It is. Leslie Youngblood (19:21) what could happen at any given time in the state of the world. But to just ensure that you're covering your bases and you're covering your business, it's the same as with an emergency fund for your personal life, right? why would you not do that for your business, too? And, you know, as we were talking about payment for services and and I think in the service world, where there's the pricing and packaging of services, right? Tell us about your playbook for moving from hourly to value-based pricing without scaring off clients, because I think that can be a hard leap for entrepreneurs as well. Armine Alajian (19:55) yes, I know value-based pricing is pushed. There's a lot of classes, there's a lot of people teaching that, but I like retainers. It all depends on the project, right? If you're working with the same company, it's the same, their external accounting department, it's the same, so retainer makes more sense. Whether you have... 10 people working on a job or you set that retainer based on scope. So you know this is a scope, then you could revisit the scope if it gets more than you could talk about that. Hourly, there are some jobs where it's just like, I don't know how long it's gonna take. It's a one-time project hour like lawyers, right? Everything is hourly for them because it becomes like construction. Once you dig, you're like, my God, you're very. Leslie Youngblood (20:17) Mm-hmm. Right, yes, sure. High hourly. Yeah. It's not a cheap hourly rate for those lawyers. Armine Alajian (20:39) Yeah, I remember I talked to someone, they're like, well, this 15 minute call will be complimentary. It's like, okay, let's quickly get all our questions in the 15 minutes. Leslie Youngblood (20:45) Yeah. Thank God. Let me check my reserves, my cash reserves. Armine Alajian (20:51) Right, ⁓ I like Retainer. it's good for both parties, but you can't say hourly doesn't work. It just, all depends on what the project is. Leslie Youngblood (20:56) Mm-hmm. Sure, and it can fluctuate month to month too, right? you you can have a base retainer and then accommodate for an overage like there as well. But I think that's helpful for you as the provider of the service, because you know, for X number of months, I'm going to have this money coming in. And for that... Armine Alajian (21:08) ⁓ yes, right, right. Leslie Youngblood (21:20) receiver of the goods or services, they're going to have that going out and everybody can plan accordingly. And it, you know, I feel like it relieves a lot of question marks for both parties. Armine Alajian (21:29) It does. Yeah, it does. And it also depends on scope because sometimes like, I didn't have that much money, I'm but the work just because you can't have sales come in, it doesn't mean you don't have a giant workload of accounting. So it's different for everyone. Leslie Youngblood (21:41) Right. Right. 100 %? Yeah. my goodness, 100%. mean, there's going businesses in times of year, season. What's that? No, no, is. No, but tell us about that and any tips you have for navigating that. I think specifically too, as women, can, you know, because again, we're not taught the skills of how to talk about money and even how to manage our money, right? ⁓ Armine Alajian (21:52) Nobody likes this conversation. Nobody likes this conversation. No business owner likes this conversation. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (22:13) And so tell us what any tips you have for how to make it easier for somebody navigating these scenarios. Armine Alajian (22:19) it's, you know, I don't have easy tips. It's a belief system that us as women, we have to shift. And the more you do it, the more easier it gets or the more you're kind of like, OK, I know you get to know a lot of different personalities. You have to become like a psychologist. Even then, somebody's having a bad day. Your bill comes in at the same time. Boom. What is this for? Or like it's the same one every month. Leslie Youngblood (22:23) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Sure. yeah. Armine Alajian (22:44) I don't have a, I'm not a coach. Leslie Youngblood (22:45) Just do it, just do it, just gotta keep doing it. Why, obviously... Yeah. That's... Armine Alajian (22:49) I'm not a coach. When business is good for everyone, no one complains. But when it starts to slow down, that's like, well, what is this? And nobody likes us. Nobody likes accountants. Accountants, ITs, we're service providers. We're a cost center. We're not shiny objects that generate sales, like marketing. We're not exciting, right? It's like, Leslie Youngblood (22:58) Right, right, people start getting real. That's... Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it's so important. It's so important. Armine Alajian (23:14) You know, we don't give you the good, it's absolutely important. It's the foundation. It's like building a house, it's the foundation. Leslie Youngblood (23:18) Right. Yeah, you're like the babysitter though, right? Because I have this great idea, let's do this. And the account's like, mm-mm, you can't do that, you don't have the money. You're like, but I want it, we're gonna make it happen. You're like, that's a terrible idea. It's like. Armine Alajian (23:25) No. All right, but this is what it looks like. Nobody, we're the mailman. Nobody, the messenger always get shot. We bring the results and it's not aligned with what they expected. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. Usually when it is, it's great. It's those stories that are not aligned. And that's just like we're humans. We're like that. Leslie Youngblood (23:40) ⁓ Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Sure. Well, and it's not like your fault. You're just reporting the facts of the numbers, right? Like you said, like you're the messenger. I didn't make this up. This is factually what I'm seeing from the numbers here. No. No, but it's important, right? And so I think, that's a trauma. Armine Alajian (23:58) Yes, yes, but they don't want to hear it. They don't, it doesn't matter. our inner child comes in and we're like, I want the cookie, I'm not happy, so. Leslie Youngblood (24:09) Yeah, yeah, for sure. But I also want to go back to having the conversations too, and that nobody likes it. And the more you do it, the better you get. And I always say, like, what's the especially if you're navigating maybe a new business opportunity and they're like, no, it's true. say, OK, then. Armine Alajian (24:12) Hahaha Leslie Youngblood (24:25) I don't then okay, how about here or how about there? And I think a lot of times we throw a number out and if somebody's like, nope, then I'm done with you, then okay. if you don't wanna talk about money, like this is a collaboration. This is a communication. I'm gonna give you a number and you could say, that's too high. I was expecting you to be more here. And I always say if somebody is agreeing to it right away, I priced myself too low, right? Because they're like, oh yeah, let's get that right on the books right now. It's like, should have, you know, asked for more. Armine Alajian (24:37) Right, right, right, right. Leslie Youngblood (24:53) the money should never be that gate that prevention of you collaborating or working with somebody that's just a conversation to get you both to the place of that value that you're both going to get out of. Armine Alajian (24:57) Mm-hmm That's a good way of putting it. Yeah, I like that. I like the way you put it. That's very good. And it's also like in the beginning, it's a relationship, right? So you start working like, okay, this is, because I don't really know exactly what it'll look like. Leslie Youngblood (25:11) Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (25:18) Right, you're like, is what it'll know or yes, and then you negotiate, you go back and forth. That's why you work a little, you test it out, you do a setup, and then once you're both comfortable, you continue. But yeah, it does become sometimes uncomfortable because you don't know, they don't know. You're providing based on your experience, judgment, and you know, what you've seen in the past, but they also don't think how bad it is sometimes. Leslie Youngblood (25:29) Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (25:45) and they think, it's just easy. Oh, I could do it. Or they will go and get somebody. When they start to price shop, it's like, okay, do you want value or are you looking for, you know, someone that could do this, the cheapest, which usually sometimes it messes up because they go and they hire like a bookkeeper that's just there coding transactions and processing transactions. Leslie Youngblood (25:49) Right. best. The best. Right? That's never the right move. Right. Well, so yes, if you are a business owner looking for an accountant, CPA, tax person, yet you probably don't want to take the lowest price person or you get what you pay for, right? In like so many ways, shapes and forms. Armine Alajian (26:25) You get what you pay for, right? And with accountants like us, like we have all of the staff, the expertise, like we know what it would look like. I'm not bagging on billkeepers. I love them. It's like we need them. But if we set it up, we know exactly how to set it up. You don't need to go get someone from here, from there. Leslie Youngblood (26:35) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right, yes, then you got them covered and you can that. Yeah. Armine Alajian (26:47) We got them covered, yeah, and I love that. It's a partnership. It's like, okay, you trust us, we trust you. We have your best intentions at heart and we want you to succeed. That's all. Wanna help? That's it. That's it. Leslie Youngblood (26:58) Yeah, right. why? Yes, exactly. If this doesn't feel right for you or you're not connecting and meshing on price or vibe or whatever. Yeah, that's okay. we don't have to take it as a personal. Armine Alajian (27:06) Sometimes yeah, it's like okay. Leslie Youngblood (27:11) we don't take a personal period. Yeah, it's not personal and I that makes me crazy because I know I feel as women I'm agrees podcast. She was talking about like as when women fail We take it personal when men fail they just take it as a learning experience and I'm like, ⁓ That's so I yes, I can see that just right and if you get a know if you something fails or you don't get a Armine Alajian (27:12) insult. Mm-hmm. huh. Mmm. Leslie Youngblood (27:34) job or whatever it is or they say, it's not because you stink as a person. It's not because what you provided and pitched or proposed or your business service, whatever. It's not because it's bad in any way. It's it's just it's just as it does. It hurts. But I feel like it can help you move past it more effectively by being like, well, bye. Then you're not for me. Right. there's something better. Armine Alajian (27:45) Still hurts. It's less, like the more you do it, it's sad, but the more you get hurt, it hurts less. Or you're like, you start taking it less personal and you're like, okay, it's not me, it's not you, it's just, it's okay. Leslie Youngblood (28:00) Yeah. Right. Yes. Yes, yes, definitely. Now, Armin, if a listener asks you to audit their business in one hour, what would you review first? Bank, pipeline, AR, AP, margins, or something else and why? Armine Alajian (28:14) ⁓ uh-huh. Okay, we audit, we don't want to use that word audit because in accounting when we say audit, it becomes a more serious financial statement audit. for, yes, so for compliance, we're gonna, we're gonna do an analysis of your books, right? We're gonna, we're gonna look to see, I'd start with the bank because everything flows through the bank, right? Is everything flowing to the bank? Leslie Youngblood (28:28) Ooh! Armine Alajian (28:44) and then go down the balance sheet, is everything reconciled? Then look at the P &L, how does everything look like? there patterns, are there trends? Then look at the detail. Like we have an hour, so it'll be really quick, just like high level, like this is what I see what's happening. And then we start to like really fix it and set it up and do everything else. But yeah, definitely I'd start with the bank because that's where bank credit cards, anything, any form of... Leslie Youngblood (29:00) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. and Armine Alajian (29:12) movement that starts with cash. Leslie Youngblood (29:14) Hmm, gotcha. And so tell us the PNL that's a product in loss statement, Right. Profit and loss. Okay. Tell us how they should set that up. Because most small business owners might just have a notebook or might just be using a spreadsheet or maybe they'll use QuickBooks or maybe they'll have somebody but if you're just getting started and ⁓ I got it. I thought I just had to Armine Alajian (29:20) Profit and loss. Profit and loss. Profit and loss, yes. Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (29:39) right when my bills are coming out every week or every month, right? tell us more about the importance of that particular statement. Armine Alajian (29:45) It's very important, both statements are important because a lot of new businesses, they just book every... QuickBooks or anybody else with now AIs, there's a lot of suggestions. There's a lot of, I think it's this. And you're like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're doing it. So you're just clicking, clicking, clicking, and then you have it. And then you're like, oh, look, this looks good. But no, what is it like? Profit and loss, profit, like your sales, your income comes there and your expenses. If you're paying a loan, that's not an expense. That's just a debt payment. That sits on the balance sheet. So setting that up is super important. Leslie Youngblood (29:56) Yeah. Thank you. Armine Alajian (30:19) If you're gonna do it at least have someone an accountant like look at it annually Just like hey or help me with the setup help me with the setup and then I'll do the rest Most of the time It's not it's not the correct way just because also QuickBooks and other systems make a lot of suggestions and it becomes very detailed and unnecessary Leslie Youngblood (30:28) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, gotcha. Tell us about, is there anybody that you worked with or a client that comes to mind that had a total transformation working with you or even just doing something simple like getting their PNL statement in order? Armine Alajian (30:57) think it would be not one or two, but usually when we're not working from the inception, they come with records that are not clean, that are not done. Leslie Youngblood (31:05) Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (31:09) And we clean it all up, right? We clean it all up. Is your APAR, is it balanced cash, recs, all of that. Like, okay, this is what it looks like. They're still not comfortable yet. So baby steps, we have to. So now let's do this monthly. Let's do this quarterly. This is what it looks like for your taxes. Let's build the cash flow sheet. And then once you slowly provide all that, you have that, then they become comfortable looking. Like, okay, I see this is what it looks like. This is what my cash looks like. my God, I have to pay 30,000. Leslie Youngblood (31:11) Thank Yeah. That's That's it. Yeah. Armine Alajian (31:39) $20,000 in taxes, but okay, but then next quarter or year after you're like, okay, I knew that I knew that I had it saved Leslie Youngblood (31:41) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that AP is annual payments, annual profit, like to AER APs. Okay. Armine Alajian (31:51) ⁓ Accounts, sorry, accounts payable. So accounts receivable, the money that your customers owe you. Accounts payables, who do I owe? Leslie Youngblood (31:59) Gotcha, gotcha. Thank you. we see these acronyms and it's like learning a new language, language of money, the language of accounting. Armine Alajian (32:05) Right, right, and it just comes to us and we say it without knowing, but honestly, like, if I need a doctor, I go to a doctor. If I need a lawyer, I go to a lawyer. I don't wanna be my own doctor, I don't wanna be my own lawyer. If I need someone else's expertise, I go to them. I don't know why with accounting and the way they're, like, these are tools that we use. Yes, you could use it, absolutely. If you, great. But sometimes it's like just engage with someone that can. Leslie Youngblood (32:19) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (32:32) Bless what you're doing or like, yeah, you're good, continue. Right, you might not be the size where you need a full accounting department, but maybe you just need it annually, even if it's just for taxes. Leslie Youngblood (32:35) Yes. Yes, yes. Well, I think that's, I feel like something that I see so much and that we should all heed and remember in this age of tech and information and ease, my goodness, just talking to a human and getting, you know, a conversation with. Armine Alajian (32:56) Yeah. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (32:57) expert in that field is going to get you so much further than poking around a platform that's going to give you all these things that are going to just make your brain melt. yes, we have all these tools, these platforms, these things that can help you. But at the end of the Armine Alajian (33:11) Yeah, but look, I don't want to do it. Leslie Youngblood (33:12) Yeah, talk to somebody give somebody a call and ask them and pick their brain. That's going to make you feel so much better. when you're starting out or you have a business and you've been in a couple of years and you're making it work and you're trying to figure out where you want to go and looking at that the money that you have in the ins and the outs and how are you going to get in? What better person to pick their brain and how to get to where you want to go than the person that knows money and has seen and worked with it before. But I just don't know why. Armine Alajian (33:15) Yep. Yep. Leslie Youngblood (33:39) we don't think about that. It just seems like, yeah, an account. Armine Alajian (33:42) I don't know. I guess it's different people. Like I personally, uh, it's like the tools there or whatever, you know, their businesses are asked, but it's like, uh, I don't want to use it. Just here. My husband, he's in IT. And then when, when something comes like, oh, you deal with, I don't know, the printer's not connecting. I know I could do it, but I don't want to. My time is spent somewhere else. I don't want to do TikToks. I don't want to learn. Leslie Youngblood (33:50) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. Yes. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (34:09) and be a master in marketing. That's not where my... Benefit, specialty, my benefit is. Right. But now it's like we all have to do this, we have to do that. Like, yeah, knowing it is good, but... Leslie Youngblood (34:10) Mm-hmm. Right. Specialty is? Passion. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. 100%. Right. Or even like thinking, well, I don't want to pay somebody. I'll just figure it out on my own or I'll just use these platforms. Why? Why would you do that to yourself? maybe at the beginning, right? Because when you're just scrapping and trying to get started, okay, yes, that makes sense. But when you get to a place where you can bring in somebody that can alleviate that stress from your plate with all the myriad of other things, why would you not do that? Why do you choose to stay stuck in that misery or that frustration, that control? Maybe, yeah. Armine Alajian (34:43) Exactly. Control. I think control, it's like, I could do it, it's there, know, like self, I don't know, not trying to be negative. It's human nature. We're all like that in one way or another with different things. Leslie Youngblood (34:54) Mm-hmm. It's true. Right. I just think that especially when it comes to money, we just kind of get into these traps and and whatnot. But so let's talk. I don't want to get like as we talk about like serious things, but at any time there can be a change in the economy. There could be a recession. there could be a slowdown. What are three moves every founder should make now to become shock resistant? mean. Armine Alajian (35:23) I mean, when COVID happened, nobody was ready. Nobody had anything planned, right? We just, we went through the process. We figured it out. You know, when things like that happen, other opportunities come up for you to figure out how to live, how to work. Big companies, have contingency plans or even... Leslie Youngblood (35:25) No. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (35:42) Even big companies will be like, oh, we went bankrupt. We ran out of money or we need a bailout. But hold on. You're preaching. We all need to save to do this. Why aren't you doing it? You have a whole team of people working, doing projections, this and that. Why do you all of a sudden have all these layoffs? Why does this happen? So. Leslie Youngblood (35:54) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Armine Alajian (36:03) I don't want to say it's life things happen like you could only you could be Planet look at your cash look at this in case this happens, but sometimes things happen where you just have to Go along when it happens Again, have you know your awareness just know your numbers just know what it looks like Or you how you could pivot Leslie Youngblood (36:16) Right, right. And I know, right, right, right. Know your numbers, know how far you can get yourself. Yeah, how much time you do have if something like that were to happen tomorrow, right? And then you can be confident if a rainy day fund, like in our personal finances, you have to be diligent with your business finances too. Armine Alajian (36:35) Yeah. And like with life, so after COVID, everybody was in the office. No one's in the office. What happens to all these buildings? They're sitting empty. I'm sure nobody had this plan where like, if this happens, we're going to turn around and rent this building. Like, so it's been what, five years? Buildings are still empty. Everyone's still trying to figure out this new norm with AI. Like everything is changing so rapidly now that we don't even have a guidebook. Like, if this then that. Leslie Youngblood (36:43) I know. Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we're just it's a quite interesting time and to go through for sure Okay, I have a couple a lightning round some questions for you. Okay. What is one metric to watch weekly? Armine Alajian (37:08) Yeah. You're cash! Leslie Youngblood (37:18) Okay, love that. What's one expense to cut today? Armine Alajian (37:22) You know, look at your... It's different for everyone, but look at your subscriptions. Those could creep up because you're like, you sign up for things, you click here and there, and then you're like, I didn't know I was subscribed to this. Just look at it, have awareness. And if things get bad, you know, cup of noodles diet, right, food? Leslie Youngblood (37:33) Mm-hmm. ⁓ Yeah, right. Ramen. Ramen. There was one. Oh, I just watched the Victoria Beckham documentary on Netflix. Okay, I do too. It is great. I highly recommend. But her Armine Alajian (37:42) travel, Uber, know, convenience stuff. I love her. Leslie Youngblood (37:54) her brand was bleeding money and David was using millions of dollars of his money to float her business. And so she brought in, yeah, she brought in an advisor. And he's like, when I was looking at her sheets, it was so over bloated and they were spending like $15,000 a month on plants. Armine Alajian (38:01) I gotta watch that. Leslie Youngblood (38:11) for the office. And he's like, so that was something that we could cut right away and $15,000 on plants a month, right? But you're a luxury brand or you think like, you know, so it's like, nobody's immune to these types of things, these subscriptions that you're not using these plans you don't need to be bringing in that much like plants. It's like managing a business there's Armine Alajian (38:13) Mm-hmm. Yeah, ugh. Right. Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (38:30) It's okay, but to sit down and have these conversations or to take this time, like you said, to look at your numbers and know where you are and where you want to go and how you're going to do that's going to be key because when you don't pay attention and you're just go, go, go, go, go and making in hindsight, what are probably not great choices. That's when you find yourself in trouble. Armine Alajian (38:38) Mm-hmm. Right, and it's good when somebody else comes in from the outside. You're like, ⁓ do you really need this? Maybe they didn't even know. Or a lot of it is like your go, go, go, go things add up and you're like, what is that? What is that? Leslie Youngblood (38:55) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. I mean, what's one tool you love? Armine Alajian (39:04) like QuickBooks, Excel, calculator. I love tools. I love a lot of tools, especially with AI. I'm all about tools and softwares and systems. Anything that could take the, that could make things more efficient and air prone. Leslie Youngblood (39:06) Sure. mean, Excel. Come on. It's like an old calculator. Yeah. Love it. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. love it and then tell us one never again lesson from your own journey. Armine Alajian (39:29) Never again, ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (39:30) and Armine Alajian (39:31) I don't think I have any never again. I mean it's like a, right, you get mad like something happens. Time goes by, everything is a learning. Like I don't think there's anything, nothing comes to mind like, I've done this, I, never again. I mean there's some glitches that happen in the systems when you try to. Leslie Youngblood (39:34) Love it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Armine Alajian (39:51) automate things and automation takes over where you don't control it or it's like an email that you send you like shit why'd I send this things like I will I would say things like that maybe sending emails and texts to wrong people or something really quick you type in it's incorrect that that would be my thing Leslie Youngblood (39:52) Mm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, well... ⁓ Yeah, yeah, and that happens to us all so that's like that's okay. We all like commiserate with our Yeah Yeah That's great. That's great. What is next for you and your business? mean Armine Alajian (40:17) Well nothing bad has happened, nothing legal, so I'm happy that there's nothing that's been like, never again. Next it's always ⁓ growth, know, servicing other companies, more companies. I do love what I do and I want to help and do that for rest. it's, and you know, using the current technology. You know different marketing strategies that just just growth and evolution Leslie Youngblood (40:49) love it. And for those listening that would love to work with you or connect with you outside of listening here today, our means, us where they can find you. Armine Alajian (40:58) Yeah, absolutely. So can find me on my website, alogiongroup.com and all the social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, you know, all of them, same name, Alogion Group. And there's different ways to contact us. Yeah, well, thank you. Leslie Youngblood (41:09) Perfect, and we'll also drop those links in the show notes. That's of course, we'll make it easy for everybody. Anything else, any like bits of advice or pearls of wisdom, Armin, before we wrap up today for our listeners? Armine Alajian (41:22) Just don't be scared. Don't be scared of the cat. Just have the awareness and it'll be good. Leslie Youngblood (41:28) Yeah, I love that. That's great advice. Where you're able to do anything and everything you put your mind to. Don't let a spreadsheet scare you, right? that's I always think. why am I letting this scare me? this is ridiculous. I'm a grown up. I'm a business owner. So I think that's perfect advice. And thank you so much for joining us today. I mean, it was a fantastic conversation. Oh my gosh. We love it. We appreciate you. And we look forward to staying in touch with you. Thank you, Armin. Armine Alajian (41:35) Yeah, right. right, right, they're not. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This was fun. Good questions. Thank you, likewise. Okay, bye. Leslie Youngblood (41:58) Bye. Leslie Youngblood (42:00) Thanks for tuning in to Serious Lady Business. If you loved this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss a moment of the real, raw, and really wonderful sides of female entrepreneurship. And hey, please leave a review if you're feeling generous. It helps more amazing women find us and join the conversation. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at at Serious Lady Business and get all of the updates at SeriousLadyBusiness.com. Until next time, keep showing up, keep building, and keep being your seriously amazing self.